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After reaching the conclusion that she should take action, rather than wallowing in thoughts and feelings, Lysende felt far more confident about her decision not to return to the Einaliai Thalassai. She loved her mother and her sisters, both blood and not, but she did not actually have the temperament for the pride, and she knew she could not bear to give up another litter of boys and see her daughters become little more than wombs to perpetuate the pride.

That didn't mean that things automatically became easier for her, just because her mind was made up. The rogue lands were the rogue lands, and although she had been trained to survive in them on her own, there were some things that were simply more difficult about living there. Like hunting. Hunting was a major pain in her arse. Fish were so much easier to kill solo than almost anything that lived on land. Most of her hunting trips were punctuated with colorful and creative swearing that only scared her prey away faster.

At first Kesä could not believe his ears when he heard an uncannily familiar voice swearing and using curses he had learned were unique to the pride of his birth. The odds of meeting a lioness from the Einaliai Thalassai in the rogue lands were just so slim, it was impossible for him to resist the urge to investigate. Given how familiar the voice was, he wondered if he might not have found one of his sisters out on her first trip to find a suitable sire for cubs. That would be quite the coincidence.

He did not wish to interrupt her, however, if it turned out she was doing something that required a lot of concentration, and so Kesä put some of his hard-earned sneaking skills to use so that he could approach and take the temperature of the situation before making his presence known. It would have been horribly embarrassing, after all, to come across a sister in a compromising position and swearing simply because she had developed a foul mouth.

He did not expect to see his mother plopped on her bottom and glaring at what seemed to be absolutely nothing while she swore. His surprise startled a curse from his mouth, too.

Whether it was learning that she was not alone or surprise at hearing a curse from home, Lysende swore again and whirled around ready for a fight. When her blue eyed gaze landed on a lion whose markings were familiar in the familial way she swore again, but this time in startled delight.

"Kesä!" she exclaimed, rushing forward to greet her son, and then almost immediately falling back to get a better look at him. Had he grown larger, thinner? She thought he looked longer of limb, but also leaner. Hunting for himself must have done that. His mane was coming in more fully now, though, and it was a fine glowing white. Clearly he was tending to his appearance, which pleased her.

"I am so very glad to see you. You look as though you are doing well for yourself. Have you joined a pride, or are you enjoying the freedom of a rogue?"

Kesä's grin was just as wide as his mother's. Her swearing amused him, not just because it was a taste of home, but because he had forgotten that his mother tended to swear whenever she was surprised and it pleased him to be reminded of that.

"Lysende!" He returned her greeting with equal enthusiasm and also took a moment to look her over. She did not look as though she had been sleeping or eating particularly well, and that concerned him, but there was something different about her manner that simultaneously reassured him. He couldn't have explained it.

"I am doing well, actually. All that time you spent insisting I learn to hunt land beasts instead of fishing was worthwhile. And no, I haven't joined a pride. I haven't actually encountered any so far, and I'm not sure how one goes about joining a pride anyway without being born to it. But what about you? You don't look as though you've been taking very good care of my only mother."

Lysende flicked her ears and tail, dismissing her son's concern over her well-being. The only explanation she offered, "I'm not the hunter you are, and I haven't been very hungry lately. Anyway, don't worry about me. That is not a son's job."

She was still smiling. Kesä looked very like one of Lysende's sisters who had disliked living in the pride almost from the beginning. Perhaps she should have asked Jhiqui if she would have liked to come with her when she left the pride the last time. Except she hadn't really known that she wouldn't be returning when she left. It had just been a thought that she was entertaining.

"I don't really know anything about joining prides, either. When we send you boys to the mainland, we assume that you'll end up with the Maestros del Mar, since that part of the beach is their territory, but not everyone does. Obviously."

"Obviously," Kesä agreed with an easy smile. The smile faded quickly enough as he moved on to another topic, or returned to an old one, rather. "But I want to know why you haven't been hungry lately. Are you ill? I know you say not to worry, but you are my mother and I can't help it. Even if you did abandon me with the expectation that I would become a pirate."

He had grown up knowing that day would come, but it had not been easy even so. Only the fact that it seemed to be more difficult for his mother than it was for him had made it bearable, and made him able to forgive her. Now, seeing her in the flesh and observing that she was not as sleek and fit as he remembered, he found he wasn't even the slightest bit resentful. He was just worried about is mother.

"I'm not angry at you for that, you know," he added belatedly, hoping to reassure her.

"I'm so glad to know that, Kesä," Lysende replied. "But I wouldn't blame you if you were, even though it broke my heart to do it."

She hesitated, not wanting to get into why she hadn't much of an appetite, but momentarily at a loss for any other topic of conversation. He had been a persistent cub. She supposed she might as well answer him. He would just keep asking, probably.

"I've not been happy since sending you and your brothers from the pride. With you all grown up I've had to much time to think about things I regret, like the way I left your father. I loved him very much, you know, even though I only knew him for a short time." She had told her cubs that they were born of love, but she didn't know how much of that had sunk in. That was not really the pride's way, after all.

In a flash of intuition Kesä realized that his mother was not going to be returning to the pride, even though she had not said that. He was old enough now to put together the pieces, and realize that he could not remember a time when she had really seemed happy to be in the pride. She had been happy with him and his siblings, to an extent, but sad as well.

"You didn't take any of my sisters, or yours, with you when you left?" he asked. "Why not?"

He had been carefully raised not to believe that the Einaliai Thalassai's ways were wrong, but he was not stupid or unobservant. He had seen that his mother was not comfortable with the way she was raising her daughters. He was surprised that she had not sought to bring them away with her. Maybe she hadn't been allowed to.

"Oh, Kesä. It's complicated. I'll explain it to you later, if you want, but the short version is that I didn't consciously realize that I wasn't going to come back, and so it didn't occur to me to bring anyone with me. Had I known, I would have."

She forced a smile then, having become dismayed by how quickly their reunion had turned sad. "But I insist that it be a conversation we hold later. This ought to be a happy occasion. We are two family members who have been separated and are now reunited. This calls for celebration. And, since you claim not to be angry at me for abandoning you, you may prove it by catching us a celebratory dinner, because I am absolutely dreadful at it."

By the time she finished speaking her smile had become genuine and the one Kesä answered her with looked real, too. It was good to be with her son again. She hoped they could stay together for a time.

"Whatever my mother commands," Kesä answered.

He had forgotten that his mother was not, in fact, much of a huntress, although she had insisted her children learn the skill. Now that she mentioned it, he worried once more that perhaps it was not just emotional turmoil robbing her of an appetite that had turned her skinny, but an inability to feed herself. He would have to see what he could do to fix that.

"I will be back in an hour. Probably less. Just stay here and try not to scare the prey away by swearing anymore, all right?" He winked and grinned, and made himself turn around to go hunting. A large part of him was convinced that if he turned around to look, his mother would be gone. He also feared that she would vanish while he was away hunting, but this was a show of faith on his part. He could only hope she would prove worthy of it.